Description

428/0/10012 BIRDLIP VILLAGE
26-APR-10 BEVERLEY COTTAGE

II
A semi-detached cottage, adjoining Cotswold Cottage (qv). The cottage dates from the mid-C17, with extensions in the C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: The house is constructed from squared and coursed local limestone under a Cotswold limestone slate roof, with stacks of limestone ashlar and brick. The C20 extension is constructed of natural limestone under a pitched roof of natural slate to the front elevation and reconstructed slates to the rear.

PLAN: The house is roughly L-shaped on plan, with a double-depth range running north south, and an additional bay to the east.

EXTERIOR: The cottage is of one-and-a-half storeys and attic, with large, dressed limestone quoins and swept valleys to the roof; the main elevation has a single C17 bay to the left, with a steep gable and half dormer; there are three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned windows to the ground and first floors, with hood moulds. There is a similar window to the right return, and a smaller timber casement under a hood mould above. The C20 bay to right is set back and slightly lower; it has a wide entrance doorway, a small gabled half-dormer and a two-light mullioned window with hood mould. The gabled right return of the extension has patio doors and two first floor windows. To the rear, there is a C19 gabled bay to the right, with a lean-to extension below, and to the left, the C20 bay has a gabled half-dormer and a square bay window below.

INTERIOR: The interior of the C17 house has a single room on the ground floor, with deeply chamfered beams which have large, double-bar stops; these run through a C19 partition to the original rear wall. A dog-leg stair rises in the rear of this section to the first floor, where there is a similar ceiling beam to that in the ground floor room, running through the landing and the bedroom to the front. To the rear, the C19 wing is occupied by a kitchen on the ground floor, and a bedroom above. The remainder of the living space is contained within the C20 extension. The C17 section has an attic room with exposed trenched purlins with chamfers and runout stops. The doors throughout the first floor of the C17 and C19 sections are ledged and braced examples dating from the C19.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: There is a local limestone outbuilding dating from the late C19 to the north of the cottage, one of a back-to-back pair providing facilities for Beverley Cottage and Cotswold Cottage.

HISTORY: Beverley Cottage originated as a single-cell cottage, attached to its neighbour, Cotswold Cottage (qv), in the C17; the building was single-depth on plan, and rose to two storeys and an attic. In the later C19, the building was extended by the addition of a two-storey gabled bay running at right angles to the rear of the earlier house. The building was extended in the late C20 by the addition of a further bay to the east, clasping the end of the existing house, together with a small lean-to section running across the C19 rear bay.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Beverley Cottage is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The cottage is a high-quality Cotswold vernacular house dating originally from the C17, with extensions in the C19 and C20
* It retains a large proportion of its C17 fabric, including decorative ceiling beams, ovolo-moulded mullioned windows and its original roof structure
* The C19 extension enhances the earlier building, and helps to demonstrate the evolution of the house
* Although the building was extended substantially in the C20, the later addition does not encroach on the plan form or much of the fabric of the C17 house and its scale and materials are sympathetic; its impact is thus limited, and it does not detract from the earlier building's special interest
* The house has group value with the attached Cotswold Cottage (qv) and adjacent Pool House (qv)

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672990

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record